The main components of our Stewart platform include 6 prismatic actuators, a platform plate, a base plate, 12 universal joint connections, 6 stepper motors and drivers, and a controller board.

In order to enable these components to work in tandem to achieve precise movements in 6 degrees of freedom (X, Y, Z, Roll, Pitch, Yaw), the controller has to instruct the motor drivers on the magnitude, speed, and direction to drive the motors at to achieve the inputs (X, Y, Z, Roll, Pitch, Yaw) of the user. In order to convert the inputs into actuator movements, an understanding of inverse kinematics and parallel manipulators is necessary.

In short, the positions of each joint in the cartesian space relative to the center of the platform can be obtained using a complex rotation matrix equation to interpret roll pitch, and yaw inputs. The x, y, and z translation inputs are then applied to these coordinates relative to the center of the base which we take to be absolute zero.

Simple vector manipulation techniques can then be used to obtain the position of the actuators needed. These actuator positions are then fed into the board which will then instruct the motor drivers accordingly.